B O AT B U I L D E R S By: Melissa B. Carrasco
Egerton, McAfee, Armistead & Davis, P.C.
ONCE A MARINE Haley was from a small town. Founded by Quakers, Friendswood, Texas is a small community nestled in the northern part of Galveston County.1 But small towns have a way of encouraging big dreams, and Haley had big dreams. In high school, she was an all-star goal keeper, and she was a leader.2 “She gives good directions, and thank goodness the team listened to her at that point. Denton had come back after trailing 2-0 in its last two games, so we knew they were very capable. It was a great victory.”3 It was the team’s first state championship.4 Once she graduated from high school, Haley went on to play soccer at the Naval Academy, and then she joined the Marine Corp.5 After finishing The Basic School in Quantico, she served as a logistics officer, stationed at Camp Lejeune, NC.6 But, this was in the early 2000’s, and almost no Marines stayed at Camp Lejeune. Haley was no different. In 2007, she was deployed to Fallujah, Iraq. During that deployment she helped to train the first female Iraqi police force in the city of Fallujah. In 2009, she was deployed again to Al Asad airbase. This time, she was working with Iraqi companies on the reconstruction of Western Iraq, getting them ready for the day that the Marines would be gone.7 By June 29, 2013, when her commission ended, she held the rank of Captain. But, Haley never quit playing soccer. “We played a lot of soccer with kids. I played a lot of soccer in full combat gear, like 85 pounds worth of stuff on! We were inside compounds when we were doing it. It’s definitely one of those sports that unites cultures.”8 Kareem was from a small town. Noroco, California was the brain child of Rex Clark, a developer who dreamed of “a utopian settlement of independent farmers reaping the rewards of their hard work on small farms and ranches.”9 By the time Kareem was born, Noroco had fewer than 25,000 people.10 During his high school years, Kareem joined the Air Force JROTC, and he quickly showed his character. “He was a leader,” fellow JROTC cadet Gabrielle Murray said. “Whether you knew him or not, just hearing stories about how he would tell jokes if people were upset and how he always tried to help out those in need since he joined JROTC, was inspiring.”11 But, Kareem always dreamed of joining the Marines. When he was four years old, he told everyone he was going to be a Marine.12 And, that is exactly what he did after he graduated from high school.13 He was only eighteen years old.14 Within two years, he had risen to the rank of Lance Corporal. Then, he was deployed to Afghanistan.15 When she had finished eight years in the Marines, Haley went back to the soccer fields, joining the Houston Dynamo as its goalkeeper. In 2016, when the Afghanistan Football Federation finally began supporting the country’s women’s national team, Haley agreed to serve as its goalkeeper coach, mainly because she wanted to see women succeed in the sport that she loved.16 When she was received the FIFPro World Players Union Merit Award, she donated the proceeds to help pay for the team to attend the 2016 South Asia Football Federation Women’s Championships.17 At the time, the team could not even meet inside Afghanistan because it was unsafe.18 Even though she only coached the Afghanistan Women’s National Team for two years, she never forgot them, and she never stopped being a Marine. So, when she received a phone call from the former captain of the team, Haley answered. The team needed a Marine. Specifically, they needed a former logistics officer. They were in danger. As the Taliban moved into Kabul, the young women found themselves fleeing for their lives. They had become symbols of female equality, and that made them targets. While lawyers, human rights October 2021
activists, and others began frantically trying to get them visas, Haley’s focus was on getting them to the Kabul airport where they might have some hope of extraction if any country anywhere would grant them visas.19 Using the GPS locators on their cell phones, Haley utilized her military connections to create a digital map to guide the women through the chaotic city. After three, terrifying days, they were almost to the Main Gate where the Australians, who had accepted their visa applications were waiting.20 The Taliban were also waiting there. So, from her home in Houston, Texas, Captain Haley Carter guided them back to a different gate-the Abbey Gate. But, the crowds were too thick, and the danger was growing. So, the young women—some barely teenagers—climbed down into a sewage ditch and began wading through the sewage and crowds of desperate people hoping to reach the gate in time.21 After eight hours, nine of the women finally spotted some Swedish troops who hoisted them out of the sewer and into the airport property.22 But, their ordeal was not over. The rest of their team was still out there. They needed a Marine. That is when the women spotted Kareem, the twenty-year-old Marine from California. They explained the situation to him, and he went straight to the wall by the sewage ditch—looking for more members of the soccer team and hoisting them out of the ditch to safety. In total, 86 members of the Afghanistan Women’s National Team and their family members were rescued. A few hours later, a suicide bomb exploded at that exact same sewage ditch while gunmen opened fire on the Abbey Gate. Lance Corporal Kareem Mae’Lee Grant Nikoui was killed in the attack. It was August 26, 2021, and he was twenty years old. Captain Haley Carter. Lance Corporal Kareem Mae’Lee Grant Nikoui. Boat builders build boats, and Marines never stop being Marines whether coordinating logistics from Houston or protecting lives in Kabul. Semper Fi.
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History of Friendswood, https://www.ci.friendswood.tx.us/402/History-ofFriendswood, last visited Sept. 9, 2021. L. Scott Hainline, Sports Roundup: Friendswood Holds off Late Denton Run, Wins 4A Title, Baytown News (Apr. 11, 2001), https://www.chron.com/ neighborhood/baytown-news/article/Sports-Roundup-Friendswood-holds-off-lateDenton-2050671.php. Id. Id. Tom Dart, Memorial Day Carries Extra Significance for Houston Dash Goalkeeper, Iraq Veteran Haley Carter, Houston Dynamo.com (May 25, 2014), available at https://www.houstondynamofc.com/news/memorial-day-carries-extrasignificance-houston-dash-goalkeeper-iraq-veteran-hal. Id. Id. Id. City of Noroco, CA, Noroco History, http://www.norco.ca.us/connect/history.asp, last visited Sept. 9, 2021. City-Data, Noroco, CA, http://www.city-data.com/city/Norco-California.html, last visited Sept. 9, 2021. Brennon Dixson, ‘He just had a lot of heart’: Norco honors beloved local Marine killed in Kabul bombing, Pasadena Starr-News (Aug 30, 2021), available at https:// www.pasadenastarnews.com/2021/08/29/he-just-had-a-lot-of-heart-norcohonors-beloved-local-marine-killed-in-kabul-bombing/. Alexandra Rockey Fleming, A Mom Remembers the Many Things to Love about Marine Son Killed in Afghanistan Evacuation, People (Sep. 9, 2021), available at https://people.com/politics/kareem-nikoui-was-perfect-in-so-many-ways/. Trevor Hughes, California Marine Kareem Nikoui, 20 killed in Kabul Airport Bombing:
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